Sports utilizing a thrown or struck projectile, such as baseball and softball, have become extremely popular worldwide. As a result, a wide variety of training and practice aids have been developed to improve players' abilities in all aspects of these types of sports.
One popular training aid is a target utilized to develop a player's accuracy in throwing a ball. Both baseball and softball players utilize devices which are designed expressly for the development of throwing accuracy, generally referred to as “pitching targets”. Many of these targets are primarily composed of netting or a mesh which is maintained under tension or spring-loading, provide a recoil or rebound of a pitched ball. Many of these targets are primarily designed, however, in such a way that the return angle of a projectile is relatively constant.
While these types of devices meet the needs of developing pitching accuracy, they are deficient, however, in that they neglect the development of fielding techniques. While there have been prior efforts toward developing targets which produce a more random return angle as a thrown baseball or softball rebounds, these devices have been successful in producing only very limited variance in the angles of deflection, particularly vertical deflection. Further, the known devices tend to be predictable in their rebound, providing only limited benefits for training purposes.
Many of the prior art devices also have limitations in that they are relatively complex, consist of a large number of individual components, require substantial assembly and disassembly effort, and are accordingly heavy and unwieldy.
A need exists, therefore, for a new sports training aid which will provide a random rebound to a thrown projectile, wherein the training aid is constructed of as few assembly parts as possible, is easy to set up and break down, and is lightweight and convenient to store.
It would be desirable to provide a sports training aid which would assist in developing fielding techniques, by providing an apparatus for causing a thrown projectile to rebound at random arbitrary angles, simulating the environment in an actual game, wherein the player reacts to the direction of a deflected ball without being able to effectively anticipate in which direction the ball will be deflected.
It would also be desirable to permit more than one user to utilize the training target simultaneously. With randomly generated deflections, more than one user can occupy the space wherein the ball will be returned, further and more closely simulating an actual fielding environment.